Wilder Gardens FAQ

Somerset Wildlife Trust are asking as many people as possible across the county to open their gardens or outdoor spaces to celebrate the ways they’ve given wildlife a helping hand, whilst serving up some tea and cake to raise funds for wildlife.

Our Wilder Open Garden scheme is easy to take part in and provides a wilder alternative to the normal charity coffee morning fundraiser.

Any garden or community space can take part, no matter how large or how small, so long as there’s a feature or two that improves the area for wildlife. School grounds, community gardens, allotments and church yards are all encouraged to take part too.

By opening your garden or community space, you’ll inspire others to garden for wildlife too. All whilst enjoying some scrumptious cake and a cuppa tea to raise funds for wildlife.

Whenever you choose!  Are there seasonal splendours such as Snowdrops or Bluebells, or magical wildflowers? Or perhaps your garden displays the rich colours of Autumn? Most people open their gardens for a day or an afternoon, or you may prefer to open yours for a few hours, a weekend or several times through the year. The choice is yours.

So long as your garden has one feature that is great for wildlife, we'd love you to share it with others. This could be an insect hotel, a mini pond or seasonal planting for pollinators - whatever it is, it can inspire someone else to do the same thing in their own garden. 

Download your resources here

The most successful, tried and tested ways to boost the funds your raise at your Wilder Open Garden:

• Entry fees or donations at the gate (we recommend free for children)
• Serving tea, cake and savoury snacks
• Plant stall
• Local produce stall 
• Sell left over cake towards the end of the day (get some biodegradable takeaway containers ready)
• Donations jars
• Any type of “£1 a go” activity – see our activity sheets for ideas!

You’ll find lots of fundraising ideas and activities in your Wilder Open Garden Pack. 

Download your pack
 

Yes. But in order to follow the Fundraising Regulator’s best practice, you must state the split of the proceeds and where the funds are going on all of your posters and promotional literature.

Example wording:

"80% of funds raised will go to Somerset Wildlife Trust whilst 20% will help St. Peter’s Church wild our churchyard."

Or

"We are hoping to raise £100 to help St. Peter’s Church wild our churchyard. The rest will be donated to Somerset Wildlife Trust."

Feel free to use our template resources - there is space to add your split fundraising wording. 

You’ve set a date for your Wilder Open Garden, so now’s the time to start thinking about who you’d like to invite, and, if you’d like more people to attend, how to promote it.

• When promoting your open day, please use the wording “raising money in aid of Somerset Wildlife Trust, Registered Charity Number 238372” which you’ll find in our template resources.
• Our template poster can be used to promote your open day throughout your community. Village noticeboards, shop windows, news agents, supermarket community boards, libraries, garden centres, tourist information centres and pubs and cafes often have areas where they’ll promote local events. Do make sure you seek permission from the owner before displaying any promotional materials, and please remove them after your event.
• Use our template invitations to invite friends, family and colleagues or to invite groups and societies such as your local gardening club, church group, Women’s Institute or University of the Third Age. 
• Word of mouth will give your visitor numbers a significant boost, so make sure you tell everyone you know that you’re opening your Wilder Garden in aid of Somerset Wildlife Trust.
• On social media, use the hashtag #WilderOpenGardens
• Create a Facebook event (this can be a private or public event)
  • Click “Events” in the menu to the left of your newsfeed.
  • Click “Create event” on the top right. 
  • Select either “private” or “public” event – if it’s a public event, you can either set the event host as yourself or a page you manage. 
  • Complete the event details, location and time.
  • Click “Create” and your Facebook event is live!
  • Most importantly – once your event is live, you’ll be able to invite guests and upload photos and share posts to get people excited about it!

If you are raising funds for project as well as Somerset Wildlife Trust, see notes in the "Split fundraising" question above.

Download your promotional resources:

Template poster

Template invitation

Arrow signs
 

Can Somerset Wildlife Trust help promote my event?

Whilst Somerset Wildlife Trust isn't promoting individual events, we'll support you to promote your event locally, with the help of our template resources. 

Your position, local knowledge and contacts will help you get the word out about your Wilder Open Garden locally – your Parish news, village noticeboards, shop windows, community websites and Facebook groups are key to promoting your event, and getting your local community together to inspire them about wildlife gardening, over a cuppa tea and piece of cake.

Wilder Garden hosts have used various ways to share their advice, as they often find that they don’t get to speak to all of their guests. Here are some ideas:

• A board or poster showing the current plants and features of interest and recent wildlife sightings
• For larger gardens, an information sheet describing the wildlife friendly features in your garden with an accompanying hand-drawn map. This could be a great resource for your guests to take home.
• Signs around the garden noting key wildlife friendly features.

Wildlife gardening tips

Yes! You can request personal gardening for wildlife advice from our team of volunteer Wilder Gardening Champions.

Request advice or a visit 

"The lady who visited us on behalf of SWT, who was a landscape architect, gave us so much detailed and invaluable advice on our new patch of land and how to go forward into making it into a meadow, and to increase the wildlife to it. We were bowled over by her knowledge and kindness in sharing information about meadow making. We will definitely be opening our garden next year to show people how SWT supported us.” Sarah Milrose, Somerset Wildlife Trust member

It’s not just gardens that take part in Wilder Open Gardens – all our community spaces are important spaces to help wildlife thrive - allotments, school grounds and church yards. In fact any outdoor space can take part to share their wildlife gardening tips. 
 

If you're planning to open your garden to the public, you must take reasonable measures to make your garden safe. All you need to do is consider realistically what could potentially go wrong, what effect this could have on those present and what you need to do to prevent it. Focus on risks that could cause real harm and ignore the trivial. There is some very useful guidance on the Government website.

Safety guidance

Insurance: There is no law that says you must buy insurance for a community event such as this - but having public liability insurance may give you peace of mind. Somerset Wildlife Trust cannot be held responsible as your fundraising activity is not covered by our insurance. 

Refreshments: As a member of the public selling refreshments to raise funds for charity, you are not subject to the usual rules and regs. Though we do recommend you list allergens where possible and you need to make sure that you prepare and handle food safely. 

Security: If you are opening your garden to the public, we recommend you keep your house and shed doors locked, keep valuables out of sight, and never leave your takings unattended. 

If you already open your garden to the public, a proportion of the takings could be donated to Somerset Wildlife Trust. Get in touch with Kate for details by emailing fundraising@somersetwildlife.org 
 

If you are opening to the public, consider the best place for visitor parking, in both wet and dry weather, and include space for disabled parking. Car parking signs are useful, as are signs to guide cars in a one-way system if space is tight. Also think about overflow parking should you be busier than expected, with signs to direct as appropriate.

It is possible to give alcohol away for free at your event, without a license. But you must make it clear that the value of the alcohol is not included in any ticket price or entry fee. 

More information 

It's really important to make your event as environmentally friendly as possible. It goes without saying, but avoid single-use-plastic, balloons and anything that leaves a trace. Source locally, always recycle, and encourage lift sharing, walking or cycling where possible when inviting your guests.

The money you raise will help Somerset Wildlife Trust continue to protect our wildlife and wild places here in Somerset.

Somerset Wildlife Trust is:

• increasing habitat connectivity across the county
• increasing wildlife's resilience to current and future pressures
• influencing Somerset's policy-making and planning decisions which affect the county's wildlife and wider environment
• engaging people and communities to value and take action to protect wildlife
• allowing nature to recover in our nature reserves and beyond

A lot of people no longer carry cash, so it’s a good idea to provide your guests with a way to donate online. You can set up your own Wilder Open Garden fundraising page, in just a few clicks, simply by clicking “Start fundraising” and following the onscreen instructions.

You’ll also find that a lot of people will still donate to support you, even if they are unable to attend on the day.

Set up your fundraising page 

Don’t forget to include the web address of your fundraising page on your posters and invitations and share it on social media. 

Download your “donate online” poster template >
 

Once your Wilder Open Garden has drawn to a close, it’s time to transfer the funds you’ve raised to Somerset Wildlife Trust. There are three easy ways to do this:

• Via our online Fund Transfer Form: 
  Bank the funds raised, and transfer via our secure online form. Please select "Wilder Open Gardens" from the drop down menu, and type into the comments box the amount raised from donations vs tea and cake sales. This will help boost the funds you raise by allowing us to claim gift aid on the donations.
  Transfer funds online
• Online via JustGiving: Bank the funds raised and make a donation via our Wilder Open Garden fundraiser on Just Giving.
  Transfer funds via Just Giving
• By cheque: Please make your cheque payable to Somerset Wildlife Trust and post it to the address below, along with a note to include your name and contact details:

          c/o Wilder Open Gardens,  
          Somerset Wildlife Trust
          34 Wellington Road
          Taunton
          Somerset 
          TA1 5AW

Thank you!

Lots of businesses offer a Matched Giving scheme, that will boost the funds you raise. They can either "match" the amount you raise, or, a donate set amount. 

Remind your employer it can be tax efficient for them, it benefits wildlife and can support their Corporate Social Responsibility goals.

If your employer is able to match the funds you raise, please let us know by emailing fundraising@somersetwildlife.org so that we can identify their donation.